2026 Indiana General Assembly

The 2026 legislative session is the "short" session during which a wide array of topics, other than the biennial budget, may be considered by the legislature. As you may have seen in the news, the 2026 legislative session began early, in December 2025, when Indiana legislators were called in to a “special” session by Governor Mike Braun to address mid-cycle redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump. Instead of a special session, legislative leaders started the 2026 session early, with plans to adjourn before the statutory adjournment in mid-March. 

By statute, the short session must be completed by March 14, compared to April 29 for the "long" session. Legislative leaders have indicated their desire to end the session by March 1.

Mid-cycle redistricting aimed to eliminate Indiana’s two Democratic congressional seats in a blatant partisan power grab, rigging the electoral system to increase the Republican majority in the U.S. House - a priority for President Trump and congressional Republicans. As you may recall from our work to advance independent, nonpartisan redistricting in 2021, we are part of the All IN for Democracy Coalition, which is dedicated to expanding democracy, defending the right to vote, and ending partisan redistricting. More on the history of our involvement with redistricting here. 

On December 1st, Indiana Republican leadership filed House Bill 1032, which we testified against in the House that same week. While the bill passed the House, it failed in the Senate by a vote of 19-31. Since the bill has been decisively defeated, the issue will not reappear during the 2026 legislative session, and the election deadlines for 2026 will proceed as planned (with candidate filing opening on Wednesday, January 7th).

We have been expecting a conversation during the 2026 session around the ratemaking process before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). HEA1007 (2023) directed the IURC to do a comprehensive study of Performance Based Ratemaking (PBR) and Mult-Year Rate Plans (MYRPs), with analysis and recommendations for consideration by policymakers. The IURC conducted a stakeholder process, which included these comments from CAC, and delivered their final report to the legislature on October 1, 2025. The IURC urged caution around PBR, especially the idea of MYRPs. They recommended allowing “more time to understand the full impact and forecasting accuracy of forward test years before considering the implementation of multi-year rate plans.”

House Utilities Chairman Rep. Ed Soliday (R, Valparaiso) held an informational hearing regarding PBR on December 4th and the legislature reconvened on Monday, January 5th. Conversations continued in anticipation of the filing of the proposed PBR legislation, which would address assistance for low-income households and other measures designed to address the affordability crisis. Additionally, it was learned that a huge bill would be filed on behalf of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) which was crafted under the directives from Governor Braun’s Executive Order 25-38, Creating Opportunity Through Reduction of Excessive Environmental Regulation.

Both bills dropped on Thursday, January 8th. Authored by Sen. Rick Niemeyer (R, Lowell), Senate Bill 277 has been appropriately nicknamed Red Tape Reduction and will be heard Monday, January 12th, at the first meeting of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee. It is a massive 175-page omnibus agency bill that "cleans up" Indiana’s environmental laws and eliminates more than 250 "unnecessary" mandates.

Authored by Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler (R-Noblesville), House Bill 1002 is a priority bill for the Indiana House Republicans and will be heard this Tuesday at the second meeting of the House Utilities Committee. The bill is titled “electric utility affordability” and includes provisions that aim to assist low-income households and other measures designed to address electric utility bill affordability. As expected, the legislation includes a measured approach to PBR, and despite the IURC’s recommendation, mandates the electric utilities move to 3-year multi-year rate cases. 

Rep. Shonkwiler, a member of the House Utilities Committee, stated about HB1002: 

“We are updating our regulatory tools so utilities are held accountable for delivering the outcomes we want. This framework would create multi-year rate plans for utility rate increases, including performance incentives and disincentives in target areas like service restoration, reliability and affordability.”

On Friday January 8th, in the Senate Local Government Committee, we testified in support of Senate Bill 6, "Extension of water services," authored by Sen. Niemeyer. The legislation speaks to the notification requirements that utilities must provide to landowners prior to condemning land for purposes of extending water or wastewater service. The bill passed unanimously and heads to the Senate, where it will be up for a vote as soon as Tuesday.

We also testified this week in support of the work our colleagues at the AARP have done with House Bill 1116, an initiative authored by Rep. Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville) that aims to prevent seniors from falling victim to cryptocurrency scams. The bill was held for further work in the House Financial Institutions Committee, possibly with an amendment, but passage is expected. 

Bills continue to appear on the Clerk’s website. We expect them to continue appearing throughout the upcoming days. We plan to have a complete list of the bills CAC is tracking available soon. The 2026 Legislative Deadlines are available here.

Legislative leaders announced their legislative priorities this week. Indiana House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, and the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus each revealed their issues, including utility affordability, our number one issue since 1974.

Items upcoming this week

• The Governor will present his State of the State address on Wednesday, the 14th, where he will discuss “ratepayer sensitivity” as it relates to the work of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission — three members of which he named in December. Find the preview of Gov. Braun’s speech here.

• SB277 will be heard on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in Senate Environmental Affairs.

• HB1002 is the only bill on the schedule for the House Utilities meeting on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

We will be live-tweeting and updating our social media throughout these committee meetings and all legislative goings on as it relates to consumers and utility ratepayers in Indiana.